Minister France-Élaine Duranceau had to defend a controversial amendment in her Bill 31 on housing which was criticized by opposition parties. They fear that the modification will have perverse effects in terms of town planning.
The amendment in question — if it is included in the bill — will allow municipalities with at least 10,000 inhabitants and whose vacancy rate is less than 3% to ignore its urban planning regulations for the construction of a minimum of three housing units.
A municipality may also deviate from its rules if the construction project is mainly composed of social or affordable housing or housing for students. The municipality that wants to use this measure will only have to hold a public meeting. This exceptional regime will last for five years.
“That means you can increase the number of units, the number of floors, you can reduce the number of parking spaces. You can choose an exterior covering which is not provided for by town planning regulations. This makes it possible to skip all the approval stages for a given project,” the minister clarified during the detailed study of Bill 31 on Wednesday.
France-Élaine Duranceau affirms that these modifications are necessary to accelerate the construction of housing. An argument which did not convince the oppositions.
PQ MP Joël Arseneau fears that this will have perverse effects. “I have the impression that we are giving the right to all municipalities to do whatever they want and that worries me a little,” he said.
Liberal MP Virginie Dufour proposed a modification to limit excesses of the density and height standards of buildings that the minister’s amendment would allow. The government side ultimately rejected his proposal.
“It’s frankly very worrying […] I have a little fear of seeing what our urban landscape will look like in five years,” replied M.me Dufour to the government’s refusal.
Solidarity activist Andrés Fontecilla also expressed reservations, fearing that without limiting this amendment, we would end up with “horrors that we have unfortunately known too much in the past”.
“How we managed the pandemic”
The minister had to defend herself against the numerous criticisms addressed to her. According to her, the housing crisis requires exceptional measures.
“In the context of the crisis, I rely on everyone’s good judgment to unblock the projects. As we managed the pandemic, there was a crisis and we had to act and at a given moment, you rely on the people on the ground and you move forward in the crisis by looking for concrete solutions,” she said. defend his initiative.
France-Élaine Duranceau still admitted that there were risks with such an amendment, but, according to her, the benefits would be significantly greater.
After several hours of deliberations and proposed modifications, the vote on the amendment did not even take place Wednesday evening.
Bill 31 has made a lot of waves since it was introduced last June. The minister immediately announced her desire to tackle lease transfers, which aroused the ire of tenant groups.
During another detailed study session on the bill in October, representatives of the three opposition parties left in a frenzy to denounce the “blackmail” and “arrogance” of Minister Duranceau. Work resumed shortly after.